1. Field of the Invention
The specification relates to a vibration modality switching system for navigation guidance. In particular, the specification relates to an automatic vibration modality switching system used on a tactile belt that guides a visually-impaired person to follow a path.
2. Description of the Background Art
Vibrotactile devices are used in a broad range of applications including waypoint navigation and facilitating navigation for people with reduced visual capacity. For example, the vibrotactile devices can be used in a person-guiding scenario, where the vibrotactile instructs a person to stay on a path. One of the main drawbacks of existing vibrotactile devices is that they often provide a single vibration modality and a continuous application of the same modality, which makes the user numb to the vibration itself. A person, who uses a device that vibrates all the time, will get used to the vibration, and after a certain time the person cannot feel any subtle change of vibration if any.
Another main drawback of the existing vibrotactile devices is that none of the existing vibrotactile devices are able to automatically change their vibration modality on-line depending on the path, the surrounding environment or information of the user. Most of the existing vibrotactile device has only one vibration modality, or at most a distinct stop vibration modality besides a single path following modality.